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Linux is a great operating system for servers. Coincidentally, I run a local linux server and as everyone should know… disk space matters! That’s where today’s quick fix comes in! As a server owner, you will quickly realize how important every little kilobit is when it comes to keeping your server in order.

If you are curious how large your log space is you may run du -hs /var/log

Heres how to compress and backup all your logs to /root/logs-(date).tar.bz2 and wipe all the data out of all the files in /var/log.

Open up a CLI (terminal)

tar -cjf /root/logs-`date +%d%m%y`.tar.bz2 /var/log

find /var/log -type f | xargssed ‘/^/d’ -i

Red: This part of the command will send the path of all the files in /var/log to stdout(the screen)

Blue: The xargs command allows us to perform an operation on everything in stdout, as from the previous command displays all the file names, this will let us “merge” a command with the filenames.

Green: sed is a streamline editor, basically it will allow us to perform a regular expression. In this case we are deleting all the lines from a file

The setup and use of PandoraSaver is rather straight-forward. PandoraSaver is configured to use a combination of applications: Fiddler- a HTTP debugger to find the location of the songs your listening to, and PortableFirefox – to use in coordination with Fiddler, pre-configured for ripping. Together, these applications tweaked and working together, form PandoraSaver. We found a few tips that get PandoraSaver running just the way most people would like to… so we will include those in here. Here we go!

The Process:

Download the .NET Framework and install it if you haven’t already.

Download PandoraSaver from the link above, then install it.

At the end of the installer, you will be prompted with two checkboxes. Launch Install Flash and Launch Install Settings for Fiddler2. You won’t need to install Flash if any only if you have a copy of Firefox already installed, with Flash support. If you are unsure about this, install it anyways.

Once you click Finish, the installer attempts to install a registry file. A message will popup asking if your sure you want to add the registry file. Click ‘Yes’, then ‘Ok’. Now your setup!

In your Start Menu (or Desktop), open up “Pandora Saver (standalone)”. Fiddler will open, then PortableFirefox will open.

We strongly suggest you setup PandoraSaver with the following:

Make PandoraSaver only record songs you “Thumbs Up”. To do this: Open Fiddler (in your system tray), click ‘Pandora Saver’ in the menu’s at the top and go to ‘Settings’. Check the box “Only download thumbs-up songs” and press ‘Ok’.

Performing the above will avoid PandoraSaver from downloading every song you listen to. This is useful to only save the songs you like. (Hence, thumbs-up!)

Your setup, and good to go! Enjoy your high-quality music, at no cost! By default, your music is saved to: C:\PandoraFox\MP3\ in “\Artist\Track.mp3″ format.

Troubleshooting:

Like all new products, services, and what have you- some will encounter issues. So here, we have this section just for that!

Problem: Firefox loads and says “Page Cannot Load” (or something along those lines).
Solution: Click on the “Try Again” button once you notice Fiddler has loaded.

Problem: Fiddler fails to work. It constantly freezes/crashes.
Solution: In Fiddler, click the ‘Filters’ tab. Check the box next to ‘Use Filters’. Scroll to the bottom, then check the box next to ‘Keep only the most recent’.

So there you have it, some of our most popular posts of 2008. Hopefully we can build on our every-year goal of gathering more members to form an even larger community, and prepare more interesting posts for you! From all the staff at Tutorial Ninjas, Welcome to 2009!

If you need help with any of the tutorials listed above (or any other question for that matter), do not hesitate to stop by our forums and ask the question!

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2009! Tutorial Ninjas is proud to introduce this new year with many different changes. As you can tell, a nice eye-opener for all our visitors is a theme update. Its not perminent, but its a nice change to introduce the new year. Most of you probably noticed we have been “updating” for the last 6 hours. Don’t get me wrong, alot of ‘behind the scenes’ work has been changed. Because we don’t want to leave people hangin’… heres whats changed- inside and out!

Tutorialists-
Prepare to be greeted by a brand new back-end to posting tutorials. Need I say more? Go check it out for yourselves!

Everyone else?

Optimized theme and major improvements. (Many previous bugs in the theme are now fixed.)

Forum has been upgraded.

Ok, it might not seem like a lot- however I can assure you it wasn’t a cakewalk. However, don’t fret the upgrades- after all, remember what happened last time we updated?

Welcome to Winter Edition of Tutorial Ninjas! (notice the different theme?) In order to kick off this winter season-which for some is a little late- we are going to share with you some cheap winter solutions to your survival on the road!

Lets first look at winter at a glance. Words that relate to winter are: cold, ice, snow, car crash. Ok, maybe I exaggerated? Here’s a list of some items you can buy, and their competitors. Save some cash in this time of economic struggle! All prices are compared to common hardware store retail prices.

Get a Grip – On Ice
If your car is stuck in an ice patch, sand is the ultimate solution. The goal is to completely surround your cars tires that have lost grip, in sand. Then when you go in reverse (or forward- but most often used for reverse), your tires will get just enough grip to move your car out of its stuck position. A 50lb bag of sand at a hardware shop will cost you around $5 + tax.

If you ran out of sand, another solution is to use (my personal favorite- and what saved me today when stuck in an ice patch)… 20 Mule Team Borax! Borax is actually a multi-purpose cleaner and laundry booster. It has similar properties to sand, however might cost a bit more, while receiving less. A 76oz box of Borax (which converted to lbs is only 4.75 lbs), costs about $4. It might not be a cheap solution to sand, however in a time of need- its a great sand substitute! (You also gotta love the fact that a ‘team of 20 mules’ are going to help you out of an ice patch- after all, I drive a Mustang.)

Hot as Ice – Just Melt It!If you have some time to spare, and believe me- people will, when they realize they cant get out of their driveway- then melting the ice is another solution. It is most often marketed that consumers buy name-brand (or purpose specific) items. For instance, every retailer you go, will be selling 10 lb bags of “Ice Melt” (which is often Calcium Chloride and Potassium Chloride). They use these chemicals because they reduce the potential damage to cause to your grass. One of these bags (10 lbs) will cost you at least $20. Simple solution: Stop throwing rock salt on your grass!

Whats the cheap solution? Well- you could buy a marketed bag of “Rock Salt” which is also made to melt ice, but that will cost you about $10 for a 40 lb bag.

The best solution? Buy yourself an 80lb bag of (rock) water softener salt for $7. This can be found at most anywhere: Lowes, Home Depot, or Walmart (and many other places). You might not be able to find an 80lb bag, but they also sell 40lb bags of water softener salt (also called Solar Salt) for $4. Melt the ice, and keep it away. This rock water softener salt also provides enhanced traction (because when its crushed it will have similar features of sand).

Non-Monetary Solutions – Its all about technique!Sometimes, things in life can’t have a price on them. You cant spend any money to stop them, so you have to use technique to prevent them. Winter driving technique- lets recap some of it!

Drive Slowly and Cautiously! Instead of driving 5 over (or more), drive the speed limit. Pay attention to the road. Keep at least a single cars distance from the car in front of you. There is no way to control your car on ice. Once you lose control, its hard to regain. That brings us to the next bullet…

Taking control of your car when it skids out of control (not effective on ice- lets say… no technique will work on ice) is something all drivers should practice (in an open lot). The tip is, steer your car in the direction of the way you are skidding. In simpler terms, point your front tires where you want to go. Avoid using the break, however if you need to, then apply them gently.

Use a low-gear when driving on weathered roads. If there is snow or ice on the road, then put your car into a gear like 2 or 1. They are commonly found on automatic car shifters, listed as D3, D2, and D1. Putting your car in a low gear forces the transmission to hold back the wheels from spinning. Think of it as a more “direct-drive”. You can try this out if your at a stoplight on a hill, put your car into D2 and release the break. The car will not roll back.

So, we have covered quite a few things. Monetary and non-monetary winter road solutions. Now, we would love to hear what you have to say? Do you have any economical, or free winter driving solutions? If you do, we would love for you to share them with us in the comments! Happy Holidays, and wish you all a safe winter, and driving!

Passwords. Their used by everyone on a daily basis to protect personal information, accounts- just about everything. With Password Chart, you no longer have to think of a good password. Simply create your own password algorithm, and your desired password. It will then generate for you a password based on the information you provided. Simple, easy, and secure!

This is incredibly handy for people who have to remember multiple passwords to important accounts. In addition, if you ever forget your generated password, all you need to do is type in your algorithm, password to convert, and there you have your secure password!